


Ice Dancing

by tirsynni



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Fluff and Angst, Light Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-18 12:01:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19334128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tirsynni/pseuds/tirsynni
Summary: After the movie, Bunny comes to Jack's lake with some concerns. Jack tries to put them to rest...and give Bunny something new to focus on.





	Ice Dancing

Before Jack Frost remembered his life as Jackson Overland, he had his lake. He traveled all over the world, even if he hated traveling over the equator, but he always returned to his lake. The South Pole was a great place to blow off steam without worrying about hurting anyone or pissing off uptight kangaroos, and he loved dancing around Greenland, fixing the melting ice and confusing scientists. Still, nothing compared to his lake, where he first woke up and saw the Man in the Moon and was given his name.

After he regained his memories, he expected… Well. Something. Some emotional response. Some angst. Maybe even enough fear to rouse ol’ Pitch again.

Instead, Jack skated on his lake, as he did from first frost to last frost. It felt as comfortable as it always did. If anything, it felt better. He slid his bare feet along the ice and remembered his old ice skates, remembering not only skating like this  _ then _ but showing his sister how to skate, too. Now he knew why he always kept the ice solid until spring came, when it went straight from ice to water, no time for cracks or thin ice. Just him and the local children skating and laughing, like he did with his little sister three hundred years ago.

He laughed and spun in circles, remembering Emma yelling at him that he was going to fall and break his head. Now he could show his believers how to skate! After all this time, he had more tricks than ever that he could teach them!

“Now that you’re a Guardian, mate, you really need to get a bigger home.”

Jack slowed his spinning but didn’t quite stop, letting the end come as gradually as a snowflake falling to the ground. “Like what, ‘Roo? An igloo? An ice castle?” Bunnymund stood at the edge of the lake, one paw on a cocked hip, and Jack grinned as Bunny went in and out of sight with each spin around. It had been several weeks since he last saw Bunny, and he always looked slightly odd in Burgess: as natural as the trees but still bigger than life. “I could make a  _ great _ ice castle, but where would I put it? Burgess isn’t that big, y’know.”

Bunny scowled, unimpressed. His fur twitched and his ears flicked but otherwise he remained motionless at the edge of the lake, just waiting. Finally stopping, Jack grinned at him and leaned against his staff. 

He was right in the spot where it happened, Jack realized, not bothering to look down. The ice itself wouldn’t look the same: he ensured that. No, it was the details surrounding it, like where the ice ended and the trees, still so similar to how they were three hundred years ago. Although Bunny wasn’t there then. Probably painting eggs, oblivious to what was happening above.

He hoped Emma’s were especially nice that year.

“No need for it to be in Burgess,” Bunny said. Still frowning but not angrily. There was something in the set of his eyes that Jack disliked. Jack wanted to hit him between the eyes with one of his fun snowballs or even lightly dust his serious face with snow. “Y’know that North would love to share the North Pole with you, and we all know you like the South Pole.”

Ah. This was where it was going then. Jack hummed and pushed off with one foot, sliding across the ice. Bunny watched him the entire time, face scrunched up in a frown. Bunny looked adorable when he was worried. As always, Jack felt something soften inside him. Fierce Pooka warrior and professional worrywart.

Bunny shifted his scowl to the ice beneath Jack’s feet. Jack wanted to poke his nose. “No can do! North Pole is his territory, Burgess is mine. Besides, Wind likes it here, too.”

Hearing her name, Wind affectionately ruffled his hair. Jack tilted his face into her touch. With her there, Jack sped up on the ice and leaped, letting her catch him and spin him around. He landed with a light tap, holding his other leg in the air like the skaters Jamie liked to watch.

Bunny grumbled, ears going flat on his head. Jack tried to pet them once. He learned that super intelligent alien or not, Bunny still responded teeth first. “Of course,” Bunny continued gruffly, “you don’t  _ need _ a castle or whatnot. The other Guardians would let you stay at our places. I know North has a room for you and --”

Jack planned on teasing him a bit more, but  _ this  _ was interesting. “Do you?”

Those soft looking ears flicked. “Do I what?”

“Have a room?” Jack skated closer. If Bunny dared step on the ice, he would be within touching distance. “For me?”

Bunny huffed, eyes darting over the snow and ice before settling on Jack’s face again. Whatever he saw made him puff up and stand tall, even as Wind playfully ruffled his fur. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. No need to stay…” His gaze flicked down, not at the ice but into the lake itself. “Here. I need someone to help me sample my chocolates, anyway. You know I can’t eat them.”

Jack had been told but Bunny refused to let him see it. Something dramatic about growing six arms. It was enough to tempt Jack into slipping him some chocolate, but that sounded like the wrong type of playful. 

Really, all of this seemed the wrong type of playful.

Jack sighed and leaned against his staff. Bunny glanced at the ice beneath his feet again. “I’m not going to fall in, if that’s what you’re worried about. Haven’t fallen in the lake in, oh, three hundred years.”

Bunny flinched. Yep. Jack was right then.

Bunny’s hands jerked up, like he was reaching for Jack, before he yanked them back down again. He bounced from foot to foot. “Look, mate, there’s no need to stay here. This place is…” Bunny gestured at the ice, frowning worriedly, and Jack wondered how he ever found him stone-hearted. “Morbid. We  _ all _ have a place for ye and --”

“And it’s not necessary.” Jack skated closer, just out of Bunny’s reach. Snow began falling around them in gentle, fluffy flakes. Oops. “You talked to Tooth, right?”

Bunny’s hands twitched toward Jack again. He straightened his shoulders. Late Fall wasn’t his season, but Bunny looked good in it, fitting with the Fall and Winter spirits with his fierce eyes and strong hands. Paws. Whatever. It was the worry refusing to fade in his eyes which didn’t match. Fall and Winter spirits didn’t worry. Whatever else they were known for, it wasn’t worry.

They didn’t smell like chocolate and warmth and hearth, either, all of which Winter carried from Bunny to Jack, wrapping the scents around him. 

“Yeah,” Bunny said quietly. He looked Jack over from bare toes to the tip of his white hair, as if he would see some signs of drowning on Jack. Jack wasn’t sure, but he thought the Moon revived him as a spirit before any of the grosser effects could take place. “Look. I know we didn’t get off to the best start, but you know you have nothin’ to prove to me or anyone else, eh? You don’t  _ need _ to stay here.”

Ah, Bunny. The old softy. Grinning, Jack slid the last bit closer to Bunny and extended his hand. Bunny frowned at it. Jack helpfully wiggled his fingers. “Do you trust me?”

Without any further hesitation, Bunny put his hand over Jack’s. His paw completely covered Jack’s hand up to the wrist. Jack blinked, not expecting that. “Of course, Frostbite.”

_ Of course.  _ Jack coughed and shook his head, dispelling the frosty blush gathering on his cheeks. Not letting himself examine the sudden intensity in Bunny’s eyes, Jack began pulling him onto the ice. “I. Yeah. Look.” Jack tugged and Bunny yielded, his large feet stepping onto the ice. Bunny hissed at the chill but didn’t stop, letting Jack pull him farther on the ice. For a guy who worried about  _ Jack _ falling through the ice to his (second?) death, he didn’t flinch at himself being on the ice.

Bunny’s hand was almost burning warm against Jack’s. Maybe one day Jack would tell him that scared him more than the ice ever could. Maybe.

The blush threatening to chill Jack’s cheeks again, Jack focused on pulling Bunny out to the exact spot in the ice. “I wouldn’t say it’s morbid. I leave morbid up to the other spirits. It’s about Sammy’s time of year, and morbid and death and pumpkins is his thing more than mine, you know?” He placed Bunny at the exact spot and began to gently spin them around, just like he had with Emma centuries ago. “And Tooth is forgetting some things, too… Or she didn’t really know them. I don’t know what she figured out exactly.”

Bunny let himself be spun, even as he looked at Jack like he was insane. Good. Much better look on him. “How is calling this place home not morbid, mate?” he demanded. He waved at the ice with his free hand. “You  _ drowned _ here!”

Jack beamed at him, just to watch him glare back. Good Bunny. Good Bun-Bun. He kept his hand securely in Bunny’s. “Because one, I’m the master of the ice now. No ice is going to crack without my say so. Two, because I didn’t know that for three hundred years! Three hundred years I called this place home, and I’m pretty fond of it.”

“But you know now!” Bunny snapped. He was starting to look queasy, so Jack gracefully stopped spinning them. Bunny’s grip tightened around his wrist. If Jack looked at it, he knew he would start blushing. He focused on balancing his staff on his shoulder. He wanted both hands free. “You remember now! How isn’t it botherin’ ye?”

His accent strengthened when he was upset. Fucking adorable.

“Because three,” Jack continued cheerfully, “I  _ don’t _ remember it.”

Bunny wrinkled his nose. “What’s that?”

Jack reached for Bunny’s other hand, which Bunny freely allowed, seemingly too busy judging Jack’s sanity to notice. “I  _ don’t _ remember drowning. I remember the ice breaking and looking up at the Moon, and then I remember opening my eyes as Jack Frost and seeing the Moon again. Which leads me to  _ four _ .” 

Jack’s smile softened. Holding both of Bunny’s hands, he started gliding them, slow and sweet, across the ice like he never had with Emma. Wind spun around them. “I don’t remember drowning, but I remember saving my sister.  _ I saved her _ . That was why the Man in the Moon chose me. I died, but I died saving my little sister, and I can’t ever regret that.”

At his request, Jamie looked later. Emma Overland lived to the ripe old age of 93, with five children and almost twenty grandchildren. She outlived her husband by ten years: one Avery Bennett. Jamie shouted loud enough to get himself kicked out the library for a week. Later, Jack and Jamie confirmed that Jack was his great-great-great-great uncle. Possibly give or take a “great.”

The memory made Jack warm up, heart bright with Joy. “This lake is where I saved my sister and where I began life as a Guardian.” He squeezed Bunny’s hands, and he felt Joy shine in the air when Bunny squeezed back. “How could I hate my lake?”

Bunny shook his head. He still looked at Jack like he thought he was crazy, but he always looked at him like that. By then, they were dancing around the lake together. “I guess it makes sense.” He glanced away, at the snow still falling gently from the sky, at where Jack’s staff dangled from his shoulder, trailing flurries behind it. He coughed and looked back at Jack. His ears flattened again. “Still, I wasn’t kidding about needing that taste tester. Have a nice room for you at the Burrow, complete for a tree for you to perch on like the skinny bird you are.”

Jack huffed in faux-indignance. “I’m the perfect shape for flying, thank you! Maybe next time I’ll take you for a spin with me.”

Bunny cracked a smile. “Not on your life, drongo.”

They ended up going back to Bunny’s place anyway, just so Bunny could warm up after a couple hours of ice skating. Jack didn’t mind. He got to sample some hot chocolate, Bunny showed him his room, and he got to pet Bunny’s ears.

Bunny also taught him how to dance off the ice.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always lovely, either here or on my [tumblr](https://tirsynni.tumblr.com/). :)


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